Ruttler Mills PLLC

Seattle Patent Attorneys and Trademark Lawyers

Trademark Public Advisory Committee Highlights

Posted Monday, February 22, 2016 by Daniel Mills

The Trademark Public Advisory Committee held a meeting on February 15th to review the current fiscal year status, provide budget for 2017, and review fees and rulemaking for the coming year. There were several interesting pieces of information from the presentation:

Q1 2016 FY (Oct. 2015-Dec. 2015) filings are up 12.6% over same period last year

The Office is expecting a 7% increase in filings for the entire 2016 FY

The USPTO did a great job of “weathering the storm” when the blizzard that hit Washington DC this winter. At one point 77% of the USPTO workforce was able to telework and trademark examining attorneys were able to complete 90% of the normal workload despite the city being shut down for a week

The time from first filing to first office action is 3.1 months (within their target range)

The time from filing date to allowance, issuance, registration, or abandonment is averaging 10 months (well ahead of 12 month target)

Electronic filings are ahead of target at just over 80%

There are currently 474 examining attorneys for trademarks with another 40 to be added by the end of the year

Through telework, there are examining attorneys working in 30 states

New fees schedule is planned for spring 2016 release for 60 day comment period